(Sarcasm shirt from Acid Pix on Flickr)
If I
were an all-powerful grammar god, I would want to create punctuation marks
specifically for used with text messages or social media. I have a few in mind,
but I’ll just write about one of them today. I consider this one to be the most
potentially useful for my emotions and I, as I’m a fairly sensitive person who
tends to take people literally.
Maybe
it’s just me, but the limited amount of emotions that can be portrayed through
text message make me feel like I can’t quite pick up on little signs and
nuances that I rely on when talking face-to-face or even over the phone. If
someone were to tease me in person, I generally know not to take what they’re
taking too seriously because I can see their mischievous smile and hear the laughter
in their voice. Through text message, I find myself not being able to
distinguish a joking “I hate you!” from a serious one. My idea would be to have
a little symbol to use to show when someone wants to reassure the person they’re
talking to that they’re being sarcastic.
This
isn’t something that I would want to see in all cases. This would be more like
the method of using an asterisk (*) to correct a typo online. It’s not
something that would be used in literature or official documents, only between
friends in a casual setting and when the user feels it’s necessary. For
example, if two people are always sarcastic with each other then they might not
feel the need to use a sarcasm punctuation mark. I imagine people would use it
to be friendly but still polite with people they don’t really know, or to
reassure their friend who may be feeling down that they’re only teasing.
As far
as the symbol goes, something easy to access on any keyboard would work best.
For that reason, I think the ~ symbol would be nice. It’s used online today to
add a bit of whimsy to a statement (at least that’s how I see it, for example “hello~~~!”
is more playful than “hello!”), but other than that its use seems to be fairly
limited in text messaging and social media.
The
idea for this sarcasm marker was born out of my own experiences and
oversensitivity. I don’t think it’s something that is truly needed, nor do I
think it would be a good thing to overuse. Imagine if people started using the
sarcasm symbol sarcastically! It could also be perceived as a put-down if the
person being spoken to thinks they’re being treated like they’re unintelligent.
But for things like text messaging, I think it would be a nice option.
Example usage:
"~I just really hate you sometimes~."
"I'm not sure realizes how ~incredible~ his eyebrows are."
"~GREAT JOB~, friend."
"You don't understand calculus because you're ~stupid~."
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